Missouri Tigers: Loss To Indiana May Be Worst Ever (And Other Overreactions)
By Derek Franks
Heartbreaking. Gut-wrenching. Sorry. Pathetic. Embarrassing. Depressing.
Whatever you want to call it, make no mistake: this is one of the worst losses in program history.
Indiana– which hadn’t beaten a ranked team since 2006, marched into Columbia, Saturday, and won 31-27 on a last minute touchdown, officially destroying any bleak hopes of championship contention for the previously No. 18-ranked Tigers.
Don’t Blame Maty Mauk for the loss to Indiana. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Beforehand, Mizzou had everything going its way. It was mostly handling opponents with ease. A couple of hiccups here and there (turnovers, bad defensive plays) were easy to dismiss when the end result was still a convincing victory.
Mizzou was rising in the rankings, and people were starting to take notice. Quarterback Maty Mauk was getting praise from every corner of the country. And you started to see the “Missouri is the team to beat” headlines.
Yes, they were the team to beat. And Indiana– lowly, bottom feeder, “lowest common denominator Big Ten team” Indiana, beat them, in their own stadium on family weekend.
Keep in mind that Indiana lost to Bowling Green the weekend before. Adding insult to injury, that same Bowling Green team got donkeypunched into obliteration, 68-17, by Wisconsin Saturday.
Once again, poor game preparation from the Tigers reared its ugly head
Knowing these troubling details, can the Tigers be made to look any worse?
Yes. They did it to themselves Saturday in the last minute loss to the Hoosiers, and you can sugarcoat it all you want with the the terms “last-minute loss” and “hard-fought loss” but this was an embarrassment of the highest order. Indiana should never have been in the game to begin with. And it certainly shouldn’t have won it.
With South Carolina and Georgia looming, Mizzou blundered away a golden opportunity to take complete control of their own fate. With those two teams already looking mortal, the Tigers could have, and should have, been comfortably in the driver seat when they take to the field in South Carolina next weekend.
But they’re not. Now they’re here, leaving us to wonder how it possibly could have happened.
Gary Pinkel and company did not draw up a good game plan against Indiana. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Once again, poor game preparation from the Tigers reared its ugly head. Throughout the game, Mizzou looked undisciplined, as if the team hadn’t practiced in weeks and as if the very well-rounded team that beat up on Central Florida the week before had never existed.
Ridiculous penalties, boneheaded mistakes and turnovers are all hallmarks of a team that hasn’t prepared. And they were all elements that both humbled and humiliated Mizzou on Saturday.
Offensively, Mizzou showed up completely out of sync. Veteran center Evan Boehm looked like he had never snapped in shotgun before, lobbing the ball over Mauk’s head time and time again. The offensive line, supposedly the most experienced in the SEC, could not give Mauk time to make any sort of pass with comfort, forcing poor throws and giving up sacks for most of the afternoon.
Defensively, Missouri looked even shoddier. When they weren’t putting any sort of pressure on Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld and giving him free reign in the pocket, they seemed to just not defend down field either, unless you count being penalized for pass interference as defense.
Perhaps the most sickening thing to watch was Missouri’s inability to stop the run. The team allowed 241 yards on the ground, but even that nausea-inducing number doesn’t do the rushing attack of Indiana justice. They seemed to pound the Tigers up the gut with ease, as if Missouri had lined up a team of transparent-bodied ghosts on the other side of the ball. It was almost comical.
But it was no laughing matter. Neither was the fact that running back Tevin Coleman– who we said to watch out for— ran for 137 yards, even though an injury sidelined him for half of the game.
Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld was cool under pressure as they come in the last minute of the game. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Another sidenote, Missouri also watched its impressive 47-game streak of forcing a turnover go up in flames– against Indiana.
So what’s the meaning of all of this? How could Missouri really come in to this game against that team, with so much on the line, and put out a performance like this?
Looking at the stats for this game paints an even more puzzling picture.
Missouri out gained Indiana 498-493 in total yards. They still somehow, against all odds, finished with 326 passing yards, as Mauk threw two more touchdowns (he leads the Nation in touchdown passes by the way) and Russell Hansbrough rushed for a pretty awesome 119 yards himself. Wide receiver Bud Sasser had a career day, 11 catches f0r 142 yards and a touchdown.
If you were to tell me all of those things happened in the game, I’d say Missouri probably disposed of the Hoosiers fairly easily. And that’s what makes this game even harder to swallow.
By the numbers, the team should have won. Knowing the opponent’s track record, the team should have won. That points us to one fairly logical conclusion: the team wasn’t coached well.
Head coach Gary Pinkel said after the game, “Any time there’s a game that close, you can go back and find a lot of little things that could have been different. Ultimately, it plays out the way it does. Like any game, win or lose, we’ll go back and evaluate what we’ve done and where we need to improve and things we can correct.”
In my book, the Tigers need to spend less time evaluating the game play-by-play, and spend more time focusing on preparing for the next game, both mentally and performance-wise.
The mistakes made time and time again against Indiana, were the kind that makes who the opponent is null and void. They could have been made against anyone, (and hopefully you guys took down some notes, like: “oh wow, our center can’t snap the ball accurately,” or “oh wow, our defense can’t tackle.” Do you need to go back and watch the tape to know that?).
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The Tigers coaching staff must also come up with a better game plan. It’s been a jarring problem for them all season. They look out of sync because they aren’t calling the right plays and they aren’t tailoring their game plan to the team they’re playing.
These are the major problem areas for this team, and as we’ve been saying all season, it isn’t going to cut it once the conference schedule rolls around. Practice and Preparation need to be the focus, not “what could we have done better?” and “What mistakes did we make against Indiana?”
Ultimately, it comes back to coaching in this one. The team wasn’t prepared for this game. And they’ll have to come out exponentially more prepared if they stand any chance at beating the Ol’ Ball Coach and South Carolina on their home field next week.
For now, Missouri will have to lick its wounds and come out angry and focused as it tries to amend itself for this catastrophe. This team can’t find something good to make us forget this Indiana game soon enough.